FLOATING FOUNDATIONS.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20314, 13 August 1931, Page 4

FLOATING FOUNDATIONS.

LESSONS FROM HAWKE'S BAY. Traversing the Hawko's Bay earthquake disaster, in the course of a conversation with an Elthnm "Argus" reprcsentative. Dr. C. E. Adams, Government Seismologist, advanced an interesting theory. It was, he pointed out. not so much the class of material as how the building was constructed that counted when it came to earthquake resistance. Instancing his point, he said that subsequent to the bigj earthquake ho made an inspection ot the Westshore Hotel at Petane, which is actually nearer - the centre of the disturbance than tho devastated areas in Napier. Save for the chimneys, this concrete building emerged scathloss from tho earthquake. The conclusion drawn was that this particular building owed its immunity to the fact that it was not set up on piles. It simply rested on a concrete bottom, which in turn rested 011 a bed of shingle. It was riot pinned to the earth, and consequently did not offer any resistance to the earthquake; after tho shake it simply settled down 011 tho shingle Conversely, added Dr. Adams, he inspected one of the buildings which had crushed down at the Greennieadcws Mission Station. This wn3 a vory stout, specially-constructed concrete building, but instead of resting on a bed of shingle, it was pinned to the earth and when the earthquake came it was crushed like an eggshell. The doctor hazarded the opinion that in consequence of the experience at Napier, tue (system of floating foundations such as ho had indicated would beconio increasingly in vague*.